Karenga on 'Shades of L.A.'

By Carla Johnson, Forty-Niner Online
Sept. 20, 1995

A Cal State Long Beach professor and department chairman of black studies is taking part in a live-radio broadcast to discuss multiculturalism in America.
Maulana Karenga is project adviser for the new nine-week series called "Shades of L.A.," which will be aired on the public radio station KPCC-FM 89.3 beginning Oct. 11. The program, which is scheduled from 5 to 7 p.m., will be hosted by Larry Mantle from "Air Talk."
"Larry Mantle has been very instrumental in creating a higher level of public debate about issues that affect the American society," Karenga said. "He has a high standing among talkshow hosts, especially on national public radio for his approach to critical issues that affect and confront American society."
The programs will feature a panel of people from varying ethnic groups who will generate discussion and receive audience feedback.
Each of the nine discussions will center around topics geared to stimulate audience participation on pluralism in the Los Angeles area.
"It gives a present understanding of what is now some possibilities in building the moral community we want to live in," Karenga said.
The topics include, "What Brought Us Here and Why Do We Stay," "Shades of Learning: The Education Melting Pot Salad," "Shades of Law: Liberty and Justice For All," "Shades of Gender: Men, Women and Culture," and "Shades of Belief, Faith and Culture."
"Shades of L.A." is being funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities under the National Conversation in Pluralism and Identity Initiative.
This grant is funded by the government to conduct town meetings in a series of national conversations on American pluralism. "Shades of L.A." is educationally designed to engage the audience with discussions about its community.
"It's to increase and enrich dialogue about what it means to be an American and what kind of society we do live in," Karenga said. "That's a contribution to democracy - to have an enlightened public and to have a public that is engaged, not alienated, from the political process."
As a representative of the African American community, Karenga said that he supports multiculturalism.
"I believe that the hope of America is to recognize that America is not a white-finished product, but it is an on-going multicultural project," he said. "Each people has both the right and responsibility to speak its own special culture truth and to make its own unique contribution to how this society is reconceived and reconstucted."
After each radio broadcast of the program, the advisory-board panel will meet to evaluate each topic and how to deepen audience stimulation.
"This gives people a strong encouragement to speak and to have their voice counted and gives America an idea who its citizens are," Karenga said. "To see how they actually feel about building a moral community where they all can live in peace and flourish as human beings.
"And this is a contribution. It's a small contribution, but it's an essential one," he added.
"Shades of L.A." is being funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities under the National Conversation in Pluralism and Identity Initiative.
This grant is funded by the government to conduct town meetings in a series of national conversations on American pluralism. "Shades of LA" is educationally designed to engage the audience with discussions about its community.
"It's to increase and enrich dialogue about what it means to be an American and what kind of society we want to live in and what kind of society we do live in," Karenga said. "That's a contribution to democracy - to have an enlightened public and to have a public that is engaged, not alienated, from the political process."
As a representative of the African American community, Karenga said that he supports multiculturalism.
"I believe that the hope of America is to recognize that America is not a white-finished product, but it is an on-going multicultural project," he said. "Each people has both the right and responsibility to speak its own special culture truth and to make its own unique contribution to how this society is reconceived and reconstructed."
After each radio broadcast of the program, the advisory-board panel will meet to evaluate each topic and how to deepen audience stimulation.
"This gives people a strong encouragement to speak and to have their voice counted and gives America an idea who its citizens are," Karenga said. "To see how they actually feel about building a moral community where they all can live in peace and flourish as human beings.
"And this is a contribution. It's a small contribution, but it's an essential one," he added.
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